


Time Is All We Have

by southoffebruary



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Crack Crossover, Crossover, Drama, Eventual Romance, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Harkness Flirts, M/M, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Spoilers, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 09:21:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19461046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/southoffebruary/pseuds/southoffebruary
Summary: They must have looked quite a picture. Two timeless men sitting with miserable faces in a bar. They had no one, only each other, and time.Jack and The Doctor embark on an epic journey.





	Time Is All We Have

**Author's Note:**

> Set somewhere after The Waters of Mars (Doctor Who) and Children of Earth (Torchwood).
> 
> This started long ago as a NaNo challenge and was set to be an ambitious (crack)crossover with some favourite fandoms. Stay tuned to which ones make an appearance.

Jack kept his hand firmly on the brown lever as the TARDIS rocked wildly back and forth.

The Doctor’s suit clad arm reached across in front of him briefly, flicking a yellow switch before he retreated to the opposite side of the console. He jumped and scrambled from one part of the control panel to the other, and Jack was fascinated by every move. Long fingers poked and prodded at buttons, a converse clad foot was used as leverage as The Doctor’s strong hands pulled at knobs. On one side, parts of the console were slammed with a fist, and then hit with a hammer on the other.

Every step was part of a very strange, oddly coordinated routine. And yet it was chaos. Each move was carefully timed and seemingly never repeated on each flight through the time vortex. The steps were only known to the Time Lord.

When they started on this journey, Jack had been given one instruction by The Doctor; hold down the brown lever no matter what happened. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and made a comment about how he could easily hold onto a knob all night, then laughed out loud when The Doctor fumbled and muttered something about adjusting the stabilisers.

It was good to know, Jack had mused to himself, that he hadn’t completely lost his touch.

Now, sparks were flying from the console and the TARDIS seemed hell bent on throwing them off their feet. It was always a wild ride with the old girl but Jack loved every minute of it.

Much to Jacks dismay though, it seemed that the tumultuous flight through the vortex, and the destination ahead of them, failed to animate The Doctor as normally would. His brown eyes were dark, not burning with the usual fire of excitement a new destination would bring. He seemed to be merely going through the motions of flying the TARDIS, and that worried Jack. He had noticed something different about his old friend the moment he found him drowning his sorrows on the Carbinal Station less than twenty four hours ago.

It was somewhere in the sixtieth century. Now four months in Jack’s linear timeline since the four-five-six had invaded earth and everything in his life had been destroyed. In those few months, he had drunk and fucked his way across as much of time and space as he could. He sought comfort in any human that crossed his path, and in every red scaled, blue fleshed or tentacled being that would have him. He never stayed long enough to learn anyone’s name, or for them to learn his. And he found that if he consumed enough alcohol, inhaled enough questionable substances, or fucked himself into oblivion enough times, that it was almost enough to dull out the memories that haunted him from twenty-first century earth.

He had heard about the Carbinal Station, a luxurious bar haven tucked away in the Blucannis solar system, from a beautiful purple skinned alien he met in The New Pluto Colony. She had explained that the Carbinal Station once began as a stopover point between planetary travels, and as the centuries went on, offered its visitors hundreds of themed bars from old earth and from various other now extinct species. A hotel station even ran adjacent for those who wanted to stay and really work on their alcoholism.

When he arrived, Jack wasn’t sure what drew him to bar number 47Ag, but when he entered the large silver doors and saw that familiar figure with tousled hair and pinstripe suit, sitting on one of the winged back bar stools, he thanked whatever higher power there might be out there for steering him in the direction of his old friend once again.

~*~*~*~

The Doctor felt Jack’s presence before the Captain even entered the bar, he always felt him though. Jack Harkness was that constant dull hum of wrongness in the back of his brain. He was the timeless noise that he shut out and was mostly successful at pretending wasn’t there. It was only when they were in close proximity to each other that The Doctor really noticed. And when Jack died, the absolute improbability of him, alerted The Doctor to his presence once again like a beacon. Jack’s deaths, and consequently his resurrections, practically screamed at him. And afterwards, a new point in time would appear changed to him, a future altered, even if only slightly, because Jack Harkness did not stay dead.

So when the Captain sat down next to him in the bar, he couldn’t help but shift uncomfortably in his seat. It was just his natural instinct to run from Jack. Even now, his presence right next to him still made him twitch slightly. It had been something that he learned to dull out when they had travelled together, but it had been a while since he had seen the Captain, not to mention that he already had countless drinks under his belt, he wasn’t sure he could channel up the energy to block out the itch all over his skin and the twist inside his gut that Jack brought on.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Jack smiled at him as he ordered a drink.

“Of all of time and space,” The Doctor replied mildly, but he couldn’t help but soften a little with Jack’s trademark movie-star smile beaming back at him. There was something about the Captain that was irrevocably charming; but Jack knew it too, so The Doctor would never dare to admit it out loud. No point in feeding his already generous ego.

“How long has it been,” Jack began cautiously. “Since you last saw me?”

“Four months. The incident with-” he paused and waved of his hand theatrically. “The missing earth.”

Jack nodded and commented that it had been the same for him. The Doctor knew what that meant. It had been four months since the four-five-six had invaded Earth in Jack’s timeline. A fixed point in Earth’s history – or future, depending how you looked at it – that he was unable to change.

The Doctor expected Jack had questions, accusations even, about why he hadn’t come to Earths defence or even to rescue Jack’s grandson and lover. But the Captain was quiet as he sipped on a wildly colourful drink. It was evident that he had arrived at the bar station for the same reasons as The Doctor – he was running. And perhaps it was some kind of fate that they had suddenly run into each other, or merely a coincidence. But he never did believe in coincidence.

The Doctor gestured at the bartender to make him the same drink as Jack’s; the three different shades of purple sitting carefully on top of each other completely fascinated him. The Doctor had practically taken up residency in the 47Ag room for the last ten hours. He had been working his way through the menu, seeing what might be the most effective for Time Lord physiology. So far, he’d already gone through the human drinks, all of which were a tad mild. He figured that Jack would be the one to know the perfect drink to numb away his problems.

The Doctor could see it, written all over Jack’s eyes, pain from the deaths of his loved ones so recently in his past. For all the bravado Jack had, and always did display outwardly - on this occasion, flirting with the bartender as he ordered another drink - he was hurting more than The Doctor had ever seen before.

Jack had always been able to bounce back from any hardship, when you lived forever, it tended to be a necessity. But there was something more this time, there was a different kind of sadness lurking in Jack’s blue eyes. It seemed like this latest catastrophe had taken something from him. Something was missing from The Captain that The Doctor couldn’t quite put his finger on. Maybe there was a little less shine in his smile or a bit less enthusiasm in his flirting. It was almost alarming to The Doctor. If it was one thing he liked about Jack, it was his consistency. One was always guaranteed to be in for an amusing time with him around.

“Tell me,” The Doctor said as he placed his hand atop Jack’s to get his attention. “Tell me what happened with the four-five-six.”

Jack looked down at The Doctors hand on his own as if it was foreign to him. “The usual. Earth in danger, people died, I saved the planet,” he paused and looked up, locking eyes with The Doctor, his expression had darkened somewhat. “Saved it as best I could, anyway. Until the next disaster comes along of course.”

“And where do you plan on being next time the Earth is in trouble?” The Doctor asked.

Jack shrugged and turned back to his drink.

The Doctor frowned. This wasn’t Jack, this wasn’t the man who fought fearlessly by his side. It wasn’t the man who intentionally put himself in harm’s way, so that he might save someone else. This was the coward that Jack once spoke of, his former self. And The Doctor could not understand how he had abandoned those who needed him, how he could leave Earth defenceless. Which was why he found himself asking, in his most accusing tone, “So you’re here to do what exactly? Drink and shag yourself into a stupor?”

Jack laughed bitterly at him. “You’re one to talk Doc, what are you doing here? Where are your doe-eyed companions?”

The acidic words rang far truer than he would have liked. He was just as alone and just as miserable as the fair Captain. While he hadn’t exactly abandoned his self appointed post as the universes saviour, he had escaped to the bar station for a break – to recollect his thoughts before jumping in the TARDIS for a new adventure. He just wanted time out to mourn over all those wonderful friends who left him. Brilliant, amazing, Donna who he had to leave behind and Rose back in the parallel world with his double. Not to mention the destruction he had been responsible for since then.

So The Doctor said nothing, just turned back to his drink and skulled the rest of it down.

They must have looked quite a picture. Two timeless men sitting with miserable faces in that bar. They had no one, only each other, and time.

Well, time was all they had now.

~*~*~*~

Around them, the bar buzzed with human and alien life. But there was something different about this bar, Jack noticed. A thick feeling of sorrow filled the air. No one was happy. No one was smiling nor laughing; no couples were falling in love or dancing. He realized the underlying theme of this bar must have been despair, though with the shiny silver bar and equally shiny furnishings, it was hard to tell. It created an odd juxtaposition.

Of course The Doctor and he would end up in the one place where their downcast expressions would not be given a second thought. No one else cared that they were two ancient beings letting the weight of their long lives getting the better of them. Jack would have laughed at the irony if it weren’t so pathetic. Didn’t everyone want to live forever?

It was eventually an hour before The Doctor finally broke the silence between them. “I tried to change a fixed point, Jack.”

Jack wasn’t sure what to say. Suddenly so many questions filled his mind and threatened to spill out his mouth all at once. What point? How? Why? More importantly did he succeed and would he now also be able to fix Jack? Instead of bombarding his friend with an interrogation, he remained silent and let The Doctor take his time in explaining himself.

He told Jack all about his adventure on Mars in 2059 and then how all his power finally got the better of him. How in the end it didn’t matter because Adelaide Brooke killed herself. She had killed herself because of him and his arrogance.

“You humans, you’re a special breed. Oh I strut around, claiming all the knowledge of the universe and here was this woman, this brilliant, clever, woman who, in that moment, clearly knew better than I did.”

Jack raised his glass with mirthless smile and said “to us simple minded humans.”

The Doctor clinked his glass with Jack’s, offering an unamused frown as he downed the rest of his drink.

“You need another companion,” Jack said as he gestured to the bartender, a gorgeous six armed kelplan alien, for another round of drinks. “Someone who won’t leave, who won’t be so amazed by each new destination that they get themself into trouble. But just amazed enough that you can still surprise them and they can enjoy the journey with you.”

“Oh, I see,” The Doctor mumbled as he turned the new drink around in his hands. He examined the green liquid before looking at Jack with a curious expression. “You had someone in mind then? Someone like you, perhaps?”

“You did offer once,” Jack reminded him.

Somehow, in that shiny, miserable bar, Jack convinced The Doctor that they would make perfect travelling companions again.

Well, perhaps using the word convinced was reaching a little. The Doctor merely gave a grunt and a half hearted nod at Jack’s suggestion, like travelling through time and space, exploring the wonders of the universe, were the last thing he wanted to do at that moment. It was disheartening, but Jack found a new determination in acceptance.

The thought of travelling with The Doctor once more excited him, had given him new purpose. There was nothing like the prospect of a little danger to make him truly feel alive again. But there was the other thing that was also nagging at Jack – his desire to fix whatever had broken inside his friend. He would do whatever he could to see the man he once knew. And he wondered if perhaps in healing The Doctors grief, he would be able to heal some of his own too.

~*~*~*~

The TARDIS made a sharp jerk to the left, pulling Jack from his thoughts. His feet slipped on the metal flooring and his grip came off his appointed lever. He landed hard on his back on the metal floor with a thunk – the wind knocked out of him temporarily. Before he had a chance to compose himself and get up, The Doctor fell on top of him, and suddenly the TARDIS was motionless.

Sneaky little wench, Jack thought to himself with a smirk. He looked up at his travelling companion, enjoying the sudden position they now found themselves in. He silently thanked the TARDIS for her bumpy, albeit unnecessarily dramatic, journey.

The Doctor, he could see, was clearly a little startled being on top of Jack, with their faces only inches apart. Their breaths mingled as they panted heavily from the wild ride the TARDIS had given them. Jack made no effort to move, revelling in the feel of The Doctors body pressed into his. But as fast as he had fallen, The Doctor was back on his feet.

Jack knew it was too much, too soon. Sometimes The Doctor was like a skittish, timid animal. Wars he could fight, planets he could save, but when it came to matters of the heart or even a simple tumble between the sheets, The Doctor was the polar opposite to Jack. And he knew that their position on the TARDIS floor reminded the Time Lord too much of what they got up to after they left the sliver bar room.

It had been everything Jack had hoped for and nothing he’d expected when he found himself naked and at the mercy of The Doctors strong hands. But there had been nothing gentle or loving about the encounter. The Doctor hadn’t kissed him, though Jack in his tipsy humour, had tried. The Doctor evaded his kisses like an aircraft evaded bombing, it was as if they kissed, it would suddenly become all too real. And Jack knew The Doctor merely wanted one thing from that encounter. There had almost been a coldness in his eyes when he pushed Jack face first on the bed in the hideously bright tangerine suite. Jack let him, he had seen the pain in The Doctors eyes at the bar and he knew what it was like to have that aching need of losing yourself in a warm body, just to forget the harsh light of reality.

The Doctor had fucked Jack like they had been together for centuries, and all Jack could do was hold on and revel in one of his biggest fantasies coming to life. Even if the details were a little different than he’d hoped.

The next morning – well, simulated morning since they were floating around on a hotel station – The Doctor was up and dressed, behaving as if he hadn’t spent the night buried deep inside Jack, making him cry out as he pounded him into the mattress. And he most certainly did not act as if, hours after they lay together in the darkness, blissfully spent, he asked Jack – his voice barely above the breath of a whisper – to just hold him close. Jack had said nothing, just rolled over and put an arm firmly around The Doctor. Jack could only assume to understand a small amount of what he had been through. And as it turned out, sometimes, even Time Lords needed a little comfort.

“Ready to go?” The Doctor asked him when Jack found him in the hotel lobby. “I parked the TARDIS in a broom closet. Did you know after all these centuries and the advancements humans made, space travel, eradication of diseases, interspecies breeding; they still need a bucket and mop to clean things?”

The rather random fact had caught Jack off guard. But then again, he wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when he saw The Doctors handsome face after the night they shared. And especially after he watched the Time Lord sneak out of their room when he assumed Jack was sleeping. Hell, as he was pulling on his clothes, Jack wondered if he would even find The Doctor waiting for him at all.

So, he simply nodded and followed the seemingly oblivious Doctor into the storage closet.

It was clear to Jack that he had spent too much time in twenty-first century Earth. With all their relationship expectations and labels, because, for the briefest moment, he caught himself wondering, what did the night with The Doctor mean? What would happen now?

It was obvious to him that his friend had simply needed the same thing he had sought the last four months, a warm and willing body to lose himself in. To try and let go of whatever had been troubling him. Jack had been willing, more than willing, to oblige. But in some small corner of the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but feel slightly used.

He had, unashamedly and unconditionally, loved The Doctor for a long time, ever since he had met him – the last version of him. The man who had a different face, different accent, even a different personality. He also loved the one who was right in front of him, perhaps even more so. This Doctor, the one with the crazy facts and even crazier – albeit amazing – hair. This Doctor who had told him that he was wrong and who purposefully flew to the end of the universe to try and get away from him.

Jack couldn’t lie to himself, he had fantasised about what it would be like travelling with The Doctor again, and every so often he would regret not taking the Time Lord up on his offer after their lost year on the Valiant. And he thought that maybe one day The Doctor would want something more from their relationship, because Jack knew, just knew, how amazing they would be together.

But things hadn’t gone exactly to plan and Jack was, for some reason, feeling more awkward than he ever knew possible. He had never been one to dwell on a bed mate not wanting a repeat performance – because they usually did anyway – and nine times out of ten, he was the one doing the leaving.

People from the fifty-first century, his people, fucked and loved greatly and freely, without commitment unless they wanted it. Jack had never been too sure on what The Doctors ideals were on that, except that he hated Jack flirting with everything from humans to a blade of grass. But then again, The Doctor couldn’t even keep a companion for very long, it was no wonder he wasn’t even willing to acknowledge a drunken night of pleasure with someone he could potentially travel the universe with for hundreds of years.

All he could do in that moment was put it to the back of his mind and enjoy the journey that lay ahead.

When he finally saw her again, The TARDIS had been a sight for sore eyes. As he stepped inside he instantly felt the hum of the machine in the back of his brain, like a gentle caress he hadn’t realized he’d missed for all that time.

“Hello pretty lady,” Jack murmured as he placed his hand on one of the upright columns.

“Stop it,” The Doctor scolded with a frown as he crossed his arms in front of him.

“What?” he replied innocently.

“Stop flirting with my TARDIS.”

Jack rolled his eyes. This again? Already? Despite his outward appearance, he smiled inwardly and fell into the familiar routine. “I was only saying hello.”

“Just ... tell me where you want to go?” The Doctor replied impatiently as he started the TARDIS’s engines. “Beginning of the Earth? The end of the universe? No wait, we’ve been there.”

“You know, there was a planet I heard about when I was travelling,” Jack began as he took off his coat and placed it over the hand rail on the ramp up to the console area. “I was told it was made of diamonds, there was a waterfall of rubies or sapphires and apparently a really great spa.”

The Doctors mouth formed a thin line and his eyes cast down into a slight frown. Just when Jack thought he had been making a little progress, that The Doctor he knew might have been started to emerge again – even if was to tell him to stop flirting – a darkness washed over his face again. Jack guessed it was an unpleasant event from the planet he mentioned, so he thought it best not to ask any further.

“How about I pick the destination, instead?”

~*~*~*~

Jack wasn’t sure why The Doctor had picked ancient Babylon to visit; he did like his human history, revelled in it even. As he pushed himself off the metal floor of the TARDIS with a sigh, Jack could hear The Doctor rambling about their current location.

“Babylon, Jack, mid thirteenth century BC. The Reign of King Tukulti-Ninurta.” The Doctor explained as he pressed a few buttons on the TARDIS console to switch it off. “Lovely fellow, I met him once, though his sons were rather troublesome."

Jack smiled his trademark mischievous grin as he grabbed his coat. "Were they hot?"

His comment earned him an eye roll and a loud sigh as The Doctor strode down to the TARDIS doors. Perhaps, Jack thought to himself, there was still some of his old friend hiding in the depths of this dark man he was travelling with, he just had to remind him who he was.

"Oh no. No, no, no, this isn’t right."

Jack followed The Doctor’s voice out of the TARDIS only to be greeted with a damp cement alley sandwiched between two brick buildings. “Looks more like twentieth century America to me, Doctor.” he said as he looked down the alley taking note of the cars.

The Doctor had pulled a device from his coat and was waving it around trying to make it work. Jack didn’t need gadgets to tell him where he was. The glowing neon sign at the alley entrance told him everything he needed to know.

A smile broadened on his face as he turned back to The Doctor. “I think technically we are at Babylon.”


End file.
